Plain English Breakdown
The official metadata shows conflicting information: one label says 'Passed Legislature,' but another states a hearing was canceled at the author's request. The text uses future tense ('would create'), indicating this explanation reflects proposed language rather than enacted law.
Food Affordability Act (AB-1674)
This proposed law would create a grant program to help open or keep grocery stores in areas with limited food access and set rules for new housing projects in those same areas.
What This Bill Does
- Creates the Food Desert Elimination Grant Program under the Department of Food and Agriculture.
- Provides grants to developers and grocery store operators to open new stores or support existing large stores in food deserts or areas at risk of becoming food deserts.
- Requires grant recipients who close a newly opened store within 2 years to return any unused money.
- Requires local governments to ensure new housing projects do not reduce space for large grocery stores unless they provide equivalent mitigation.
- Creates the Food Desert Elimination Fund and allows it to hold state, federal, private, or nonstate money.
Who It Names or Affects
- Developers building new housing in food deserts
- Grocery store operators seeking grants for new or existing stores
- Local governments that approve housing projects
- The Department of Food and Agriculture
Terms To Know
- Food desert
- An area where people have limited access to healthy food.
- Grant
- Money given by the government that does not need to be paid back if rules are followed, unless a store closes early.
- Mitigation
- An action taken to fix or balance out a negative effect, such as losing space for a grocery store.
Limits and Unknowns
- The bill would end on January 1, 2031.
- Grants depend on money being approved by the Legislature or received from other sources.
- The Department of Food and Agriculture must report grant details to the Legislature by January 1, 2028.